I used to think there was a logic to the expression of 'star dates', but a quick google search just now revealed otherwise. I bring this up because in 'Shore Leave', actress Barbara Baldavin returns as an Enterprise crew member named Angela. She had also appeared in the prior episode of the series, 'Balance of Terror', as the young woman about to be married just as the Romulans attacked Outpost Four. One could presume that this story followed 'Balance of Terror' chronologically; the crew would certainly have earned their vacation time following the events of that story. Yet the star dates of both episodes bear no chronology, and Angela obviously was not grieving for the fiancé she lost in the battle against the Romulans. So 'Shore Leave' could have occurred before or after. In any event, not too consequential.
What's most interesting to me about this episode is the way it seems to take what could be considered quite ordinary and turn it into the whimsical. Not that a White Rabbit or a Samurai Warrior are ordinary in the course of every day events, but they, along with Kirk's Finnegan and Ruth, take on a surreal expression in Star Trek's first encounter with a Class M planet. Just like the crew of the Enterprise, I think the average viewer probably welcomed the down time, with no cosmic catastrophe to contend with (the alliteration just happened, I wasn't planning it).
For the most part, I think the story worked pretty well and was quite enjoyable. It did leave some unfinished business between McCoy and Yeoman Barrows (Emily Banks); in that respect I'm reminded of all those early Twilight Zone episodes in which events just seemed to end with the story, even though there had to be some reality going forward for those same characters or their families to deal with. But I guess it didn't bother anyone enough to contend with down the road, or down the universe as it were. So with that, this one's viable for my personal Top Ten ST list as I try to pick them off on the fly while watching the show in series order, something I was never able to do while catching re-runs at random in the Seventies.
What's most interesting to me about this episode is the way it seems to take what could be considered quite ordinary and turn it into the whimsical. Not that a White Rabbit or a Samurai Warrior are ordinary in the course of every day events, but they, along with Kirk's Finnegan and Ruth, take on a surreal expression in Star Trek's first encounter with a Class M planet. Just like the crew of the Enterprise, I think the average viewer probably welcomed the down time, with no cosmic catastrophe to contend with (the alliteration just happened, I wasn't planning it).
For the most part, I think the story worked pretty well and was quite enjoyable. It did leave some unfinished business between McCoy and Yeoman Barrows (Emily Banks); in that respect I'm reminded of all those early Twilight Zone episodes in which events just seemed to end with the story, even though there had to be some reality going forward for those same characters or their families to deal with. But I guess it didn't bother anyone enough to contend with down the road, or down the universe as it were. So with that, this one's viable for my personal Top Ten ST list as I try to pick them off on the fly while watching the show in series order, something I was never able to do while catching re-runs at random in the Seventies.